Sometimes when a show tries to be too abstract it simply becomes incomprehensible; this was one of those performances where figuring out the plot was almost impossible. The main theme appeared to be women’s oppression, while the play itself was possibly set in Korea, judging from the clothes and music. However, next to no information was supplied to the audience, who were just dragged along with the emotions on stage - happiness, fear, misery - instead of being carried away by a plot that was anywhere close to comprehensible.
The actress and director Sue Yeon’s emotions were strong and affecting, but due to the obscurity of what was going on and some confusing props - the colour red was clearly meant to represent something, but it was open to interpretation due to the lack of dialogue throughout the play - her performance was out of context.
The second half of the show was a second play (or experience/performance) that shared the theme of women’s oppression, but was told from a much more personal, yet still abstract, point of view. The audience were blindfolded and could only hear the noises made by a woman escaping from somewhere. Being blindfolded was highly effective and created the right conditions for focusing exclusively on sound. Although the background noises were artificial, the sounds of the woman running, brushing past the audience, and finally being free were created by three actresses, multiplying an effect that would otherwise have been too isolated to be effective.
The second half of the performance was interesting and unique, but the whole show needed some refining and better directing to make the meanings and stories clearer.
